SIGNAL ONE (2026)

3 stars

Signature. Digital. 15th June

The film opens with a quote from famous writer H.G. Wells: “We must never forget that the cosmos, for all its aims… is inherently hostile”. Preparing us that we might be seeing aliens with bad intent, which unfortunately the film can’t quite deliver.

Sam Houston (Dennis Quaid) is a tech billionaire who has made his fortune from solar energy. At a lecture about what the future holds he calls out Annika Kask (Isabelle Fuhrmann, ORPHAN), a computer scientist who he sees as a visionary. Later he offers her a job as she has made an important discovery to do with dark matter. Initially resistant she eventually agrees.

Whisked off to a remote island in the Caribbean (a nice sunny break for the cast), she is to work on a secret project away from government interference. Once there she meets Charlie Kaminksy (Josh Hutcherson), a high profile electronics engineer. They are both there to help the irascible, dismissive and often drunk and clearly unstable Dr Perry Glassner (suitably played by David Thewlis) who has created Littlemouth (also an alternate title for this film), a quantum communication device (yes, its that kind of film with lots of science babbling).

Through the device he has received a signal which he is hoping they can crack the code and determine – are aliens friend or foe. Also can they use the machine to actually communicate with whatever is out there… and is that actually a good idea!

Glossily made and quite compelling, the cast deliver the tech-speak with conviction and there are lots of computer screens running code and showing flashy graphics. The film is predominantly dialogue heavy with much talk of a philosophical and scientific nature. It does build to an intriguing finale, but, I suspect due to budgetary limitations, doesn’t give us what we want in terms of alien interactions. That being said, it is well made by director Jonathan Sokol working from his own script.

Steve Kirkham